Mardos Collection
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 729
Buffalo at fifty-five years. His first wife died there of cholera when quite young, leaving an only child, John. Of his second marriage four children are living, one of these being Leonard, whose sketch appears on another page.
In Buffalo, N. Y., where he was born in 1853, our subject passed his boyhood days. At the age of thirteen he began to learn the butcher's trade, while with his uncle, John Walters. In 1870 he came to Colorado and for a few months worked in the employ of others, but in the fall of 1870 started in the meat and live-stock business for himself, beginning on a small scale near the present location of the Denver & Rio Grande yards. Several months later he embarked in the sheep business, buying several hundred head in New Mexico and driving them up to Denver market, thus laying the foundation of the large business of the present time. The meat business was carried on as Walters & Co. for a time, then changed to John Walters & Co., later became Walters, Aicher & Walters, and finally was incorporated as the Standard Meat and Live Stock Company (close corporation, same owners only), with our subject as president, Mr. Aicher vice-president, and Leonard Walters secretary and treasurer.
Politically Mr. Walters adheres to Republican principles. He was married, in Pennsylvania to Miss Mina E. Burgie, who was born in Rochester, N. Y. They have four children, Pearl, Ruby, Mina and John, Jr.
W. SNYDER is an extensive stock-raiser and dairyman of Henderson, and is an influential and highly respected citizen of Arapahoe County. He was born February 11, 1837, in Clinton, Pa., his parents being Jacob and Katherine (Walker) Snyder. His grandfather came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania, where he died while Mr. Snyder was a small lad. Jacob Snyder was born in Berks County and was a miller by trade, at the same time cultivating his farm upon which his family lived. In 1855 he moved to Wisconsin and worked in a sawmill and later in a gristmill near the Illinois state line, his work taking him from one state to the other. In 1862 he went to Floyd County, Iowa, where he died soon after at the home of one of his sons.
Until past sixteen Mr. Snyder lived on the farm and attended school, getting sufficient education to enable him to read, write and cipher. He then went to Niagara Falls and clerked one summer in a store, returning home in the fall to attend school during the winter of 1854-55, and the next year worked on a farm. In 1856 he went west, and after a visit to his father, the last time he saw him, he went to Dubuque, where he obtained a clerkship and remained during the summer. The following winter he clerked in Freeport, Ill., and then went to Floyd County, Iowa, where he had three brothers living, and with one of them learned the trade of carpenter. He worked here at his trade about two years and a-half; and then, in answer to the first call for troops, enlisted in Company K, Third Iowa Infantry, as a private for three years' service. In this service he traveled over a great portion of the south and saw some desperate battles fought. He was first engaged in skirmishes along the St. Joe Railroad, in Missouri, and fought in the battle of Blue Mills. They spent three months in the fall of 1861 drilling in Benton Barracks, St. Louis, and then had several skirmishes when on duty in central Missouri, near Mexico. They were ordered south, and took transports at St. Louis down the Mississippi and up the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing, where he took part in that battle and the siege of Corinth. They camped at LaGrange, then went to Coldwater, Miss., Memphis, Jackson, Tenn., and to Tallahatchie, where a battle was fought, after which they returned to Jackson and started for LaGrange, but were driven back. They finally made LaGrange and made their way back to Memphis through Holly Springs and Coffeyville, and took transports down the Mississippi and up the Yazoo to the rear of Vicksburg, where they landed and took part in the siege of that city. They remained until the city surrendered and then went under Sherman's command to Jackson, Miss., where they met and whipped Joe Johnson. They then went into camp at Natchez to guard that country for a time, but were returned to Vicksburg and were in the raids on Meridian and Enterprise, Miss., and returned to Vicksburg by a different route.
Here many of the men re-enlisted and were granted furloughs, while the others, among whom was Mr. Snyder, were sent up Red River to re-inforce General Banks. This expedition was at
730
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. tended with hard fighting, both up and back, and was his last engagement, as his term expired upon his return to Memphis, and he returned to Floyd County, Iowa. During all this time he was neither wounded, captured nor in the hospital, although in the thickest of the fray, and he missed but one guard duty and once was unable to march. He went to Waverly, and from there, after a short time, to Pennsylvania to visit his mother, with whom he spent the winter of 1864-65, leaving in April of 1865 for Fort Atchison, where he joined an emigrant train and came to Colorado. He drove cattle and walked all the way, receiving for his services $25 per month. He arrived in Denver July 3, 1865, and worked at his trade, with a brother who lived here, for four and one-half months. Then, going to Austin, Nev., he worked in the silver mines two years and one-half and did well. He was a man of wonderful endurance, and besides doing the regular work required did a great deal of extra work. He returned to Sweet Water in a wagon, and remained there until the fall of 1869, prospecting for gold during the gold excitement. He spent the winter in Denver and then returned and again prospected in Sweet Water for another year. In 1871 he began working at his trade in Denver and continued that work until 1873, when he and his brother bought two hundred and forty acres of land near Henderson, where he now lives.
March 31, 1873, Mr. Snyder married Miss Mary M. Wolfe, of Denver, who was born in Clinton County, Pa., a daughter of Thomas M. and Esther (Kline) Wolfe, of Clinton County, Pa., where they were pioneers. She came west in 1871. The ranch purchased by Mr. Snyder was in a wild and uncultivated state, having on it a rude log cabin, and here he brought his young bride and made his home. They at once set about transforming it by cultivation and otherwise improving it, until to-day their property is second to none. He bought his brother's interest in a few years and sold forty acres from the original, and in 1892 erected a fine brick residence, which is one of the most beautiful in the community, while his barns and other buildings are in keeping with it. They have three children, viz.: Wilbur N., who married Dora Krueger and lives in Colorado Springs; Joseph F., who married Tessie Roby and lives with his father, managing the farm; and Ada, now twelve years old and at home. Mr. Snyder is independent in his politics, but has never been an office-seeker, although he is always interested in good schools and has been president of the school board for eighteen consecutive years. He is a member of the Grange and was formerly a member of the Grand Army.
ILLIAM P. McCLELLAND, M. D., has long been numbered among the skillful and successful physicians of Denver, where he has his office on Lawrence and Fifteenth streets. Through his long and useful life it has been his aim to promote the welfare of humanity, not only by the use of the proper remedial agencies, but (and this is the indication of the true physician) he has endeavored to impress upon mankind that the laws of physiology should never be violated and that those who have good health should by proper exercise and care of the body preserve a robust constitution. When he first came to Denver, during the infancy of this now prosperous city, he gave especial attention to the climate, which he studied in its effects upon different forms of disease. The information thus obtained he gave to others, writing articles upon the climate of the state and its effect upon disease. He found that certain forms of pulmonary and throat trouble could be wholly cured here, and this fact he told to eastern people, thus being the means of bringing many invalids to the state and securing their restoration to health; on the other hand, he realized that certain types of disease are injuriously affected by the high altitude, and this, too, he published, in order that no one might be misled in coming here. It will thus be seen that as a physician he has exerted an influence by no means limited to this state.
The McClelland family is of remote Scotch extraction, but during the days of religious persecution in Scotland they removed to Ireland and from there came to America. The doctor was born in New Philadelphia, Harrison County, Ohio, May 29, 1821. He inherited the quickness of the Irish race and the thrift of the Scotch, together with the sturdy determination of the German (for his mother was of German descent). He completed his literary studies in the Mount Vernon (Ohio) Seminary. In 1847-48 he was a
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 731
student in the medical department of the University of New York City, but afterward he entered Jefferson Medical College, from which he graduated March 27, 1849, with the degree of M. D. He practiced for one year in Mount Gilead, Ohio, and then located in Mount Vernon, that state, where he opened an office and embarked in professional practice. After five years he removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he became known as one of the most skillful surgeons in that state. While in Council Bluffs he performed what may be called a remarkable operation for that day, known as "Caesarean Section," which even at this time is considered one where great skill and judgment are required. The operation occurred November 9, 1857, and was a complete success, the life of the mother and child being saved and the former making a rapid recovery, no longer than an ordinary acconchment. The history of the case was published at the time in the Boston Medical and Surgical journal and republished by European medical journals, reflecting great credit on Dr. McClelland's judgment and skill. Since coming to Denver, in June, 1862, he has engaged in general practice.
With the various associations of the medical fraternity Dr. McClelland has been intimately identified. In 1873 he was president of the Colorado State Medical Society, and three years later held the same office in the Denver and Arapahoe County Medical Society. In 1876 he was chosen treasurer of the State Medical Society, which position he held, by re-election, for seventeen years and is at present its treasurer. During 1864 he was surgeon of the Denver Military Hospital. For years he has been connected with the American Medical Association. He has served as medical examiner and referee of the Equitable Life Assurance Company of New York for the district composed of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Upon the incorporation of the Millionaire Mining & Tunnel Company in 1876 he was chosen its president. He was also president of the Denver Mutual Building and Loan Association and a trustee of its property. With the Denver Consolidated Tramway Company he has also been prominently connected, and is at present a director. and member of the executive board.
The enterprises with which Dr. McClelland has been connected have resulted to his own good and to the benefit of the city. He has erected a number of houses here, and is still the owner of considerable real estate. His first wife, whom he married in 1850, was Dorothy Leach, of Mount Vernon, Ohio; she died in 1854, leaving one child, Amanda M., wife of Frederic A. Driscol, of Denver. His second marriage took place November 11, 1858, and united him with Miss Harriet B. Honn, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, a sister of his old partner, Dr. H. D. Honn. They became the parents of four children, who reached maturity, viz.: Etta, wife of Richard H. Malone; Cora C., wife of George B. Lott, of Colorado Springs; William P., Jr., of New York City; and Jennie M., wife of F. R. Wood, also of New York City. Politically Dr. McClelland was long a stanch Republican, but of late years has been a firm believer in the silver party.
EROME F. GOULD. One mile northwest of Ni Wot lies one of the valuable farms of Boulder County. This place is the property of Mr. Gould, who came to Boulder Valley in August, 1862, and traded a yoke of oxen for one hundred and twenty acres of unimproved land. In the spring of the following year he returned to Blackhawk, where he had been before coming here, and secured employment in the Idaho mill, remaining there until the fall of 1864, at $4.30 per day. On resigning his position, the value placed upon his services was indicated by the fact that he was urged to stay, at $5 per day, but his health was so poor he believed it unwise to remain. Coming once more to the valley, he settled on his ranch and engaged in farming and the dairy business. Here, with the exception of four years spent in the vicinity of Boulder, he has since made his home.
In Ontario County, N. Y., April 21, 1834, the subject of this sketch was born, a son of Jotham and Miranda (Patterson) Gould. He was one of ten children, nine of whom attained mature years and eight are still living. They are: Mary, widow of Lynian Phillips; Elizabeth, widow of Addison Day; Ora, Mrs. Mills; Jerome F.; James B., also of Boulder County; Lee; Almira, wife of Isaac Platt; and Henry, who lives in Dakota.
Jotham Gould was born in Washington County, N. Y., in 1799. After his marriage he removed to Ontario County, N. Y., and after some twelve years there, he went to Crawford County, Pa.
.
732
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. where he engaged in farming for sixteen years. In 1854 he removed to Iowa, where he made his home in Polk County until 1863. During the latter year he settled in Colorado, establishing his home upon the ranch his son had previously purchased. Later he bought a farm on Boulder Creek, and there his death occured (sic) in 1882. His father, Ebenezer Gould, was a prominent farmer of Washington County, N. Y.; and his father-in-law, Abel Patterson, who was a seafaring man, also made his home in Washington County.
Having previously acquired a thorough knowledge of farm work, at the age of twenty-one Jerome F. Gould began work as a farm hand. Later he spent much of his time freighting. In those days all supplies were battled from the Mississippi River west, and there was a demand for teamsters, who, when competent, received fair wages. In 1861 he started for Colorado, leaving Iowa May 14 and arriving at Blackhawk July 3. He spent the summer in the mines and in the fall returned to Iowa for his family, whom he brought west with him in the spring of 1862. After a few months in Blackhawk, he came to Boulder County in August and purchased the land embodied within his present ranch.
In Iowa, May 1, 1861, Mr. Gould married Miss Amy Foster, of Van Wert County, Ohio. Seven children were born of their union, six of whom are now living namely: Della, wife of A. M. Dodd, represented elsewhere in this volume; May, who married William Ellinger, of Boulder County; Flora, wife of Charles Sherman, also of this county; Margaret, wife of Albert Remley, a miner of Eldora; James, who assists his father in the management of the ranch; and Lola, who is with her parents. The family are united with the United Brethren Church and Mr. Gould is superintendent of the Sunday-school at Ni Wet. Politically he is a Republican. Through his energy and business judgment he has become owner of two hundred and fifty-eight acres, the value of which has been greatly increased by systematic cultivation and improvement.
For the start he was able to make in life Mr. Gould was indebted most of all to his devoted mother, who was in some respects a remarkable woman. She was born in Washington County, N. Y., in 1802, and during much of her life has lived amid frontier environments. While her advantages were meagre, yet she became a woman of great mental power as well as physical endurance. Her time was wholly given to the care of her family, and to promote their happiness was her chief aim in life. She endured the hardships of pioneer life, journeying from New York to Pennsylvania, thence to Iowa, and from there to Colorado, with no other mode of conveyance except a wagon. She is still living and makes her home in South Dakota near Rapid City. In spite of her great age she is well preserved, and has the command of all her faculties. She has from early womanhood been noted for her knowledge of scriptures and has been a Bible student all her life. Of her it may be said, as of the woman of old, that her children shall rise up and call her blessed.
LVA M. DODD, one of the prominent farmers of Boulder County, purchased in 1884 his present place of one hundred and sixty acres, one-half mile west of Ni Wot. At the time he took possession of time property he owed every dollar of the purchase price. From the first he prospered, and in a short time was enabled to pay for the place, upon which he afterwards made valuable improvements. In the winter of 1897-98 he built his present handsome brick residence, which is one of the most comfortable farm-houses in the county.
Mr. Dodd was born in Davis County, Iowa, May 2, 1857, a son of John and Elizabeth (Bell) Dodd. He was the youngest of fourteen children, nine of whom are living. Those besides himself are William, Thomas, Barnett, Charles, Henry, Catherine, Jeannette and Jane. The father, a native of Kentucky, born March 5, 1800, married in that state and later removed to Indiana, where he made his home until 1848; thence removing to Davis County, Iowa, where he continued to reside until his death, January 30, 1874. The grandfather of our subject, Hugh Dodd, was born in the parish of Merton on the banks of the River Tweed, near Kelso, England. Emigrating to America in 1791, he settled in Kentucky in 1798, and there in January of the next year he married Miss Millie Barnett. His death occurred January 1, 1808.
At the time of his father's death our subject was eighteen years of age, and he and his brothers then assumed the management of the home farm.
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In 1880 he came to Colorado, arriving at Ni Wot March 9. Here he worked by the month during the summer. In the spring of the following year he rented land and began farming for himself. In 1884 he purchased the ranch which he has since owned and conducted. February 19, 1885, he married Miss Della Gould, a daughter of J. F. Gould. To this marriage eight children were born, five of whom are living, namely: Courtney, Guy, Inez, Belle and Mary. The family are identified with the United Brethren Church, to the support of which Mr. Dodd is a generous contributor. Politically he votes the Democratic ticket.
The youngest of five brothers and sisters, Andrew Fraser was born in Invernesshire, near the city of Inverness, November 8, 1858. His parents, Andrew and Margaret Fraser, were natives of the same locality, and both have passed to the reward in the better land. The father was a carpenter and contractor, which callings he followed until shortly before his death at the age of three-score years. His father, John, and his grandfather, Andrew, were both natives of Invernesshire - the former a farmer and the latter a stone-cutter by occupation.
Andrew Fraser of this sketch was educated in the schools of Scotland, and when he was about seventeen years of age he began serving an apprenticeship to a stone-mason. He thoroughly mastered the details of stone-cutting and carving, and worked as a journeyman for a year or two before coming to the United States in 1882. Here he traveled quite extensively, as well as in Canada, but finally located in Atchison, Kan., where he was successfully engaged in contracting for about eight years. In 1891 he came to Colorado and for eighteen months remained in Denver. During that period he built the residence of William N. Byers, the Berger Brothers' building and many others. In September, 1892, he came to Boulder and has since been busily employed. He had charge of the stone-work upon the Masonic Temple, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, the high school, and nearly all of the fine stone residences on University Place and Mapleton Addition. Besides this, he has been given work in other places, such as Central City, etc. He owns an interest in the Markley building-stone quarries, and is prospering in all his business ventures, as he deserves to do. In his political convictions, he is a Republican, with a leaning toward the silver side of the monetary issue. He is connected with the Knights of the Globe, of Freeport, Ill.
Mr. Fraser married in Hutchison, Kan., Miss Nellie Shottenkirk, April 12, 1888. She was born in Iroquois County, Ill., and is a daughter of Chauncey F. and Eliza (Rowe) Shottenkirk, natives of New York and Pennsylvania, respectively. The father settled in Illinois before the Rebellion, and served in a regiment from that state during the war of the Rebellion. Later he removed to Hutchison, and is still engaged in managing a hardware store there. His family comprised nine children, six of whom are living. To Mr. and Mrs. Fraser three children have been born, namely: Chauncey, Margaret and Verness. They are members of the First Presbyterian Church.
DWARD SNYDER, the owner of a farm near Valmont, Boulder County, where he is engaged in general agricultural pursuits, was born in Lancaster, Erie County, N. Y., May 16, 1844, a son of Joseph B. and Catherine (Snyder) Snyder. Of seven children comprising the family, five are still living, namely: Emil, Tillie, Lou, Edward and Mary. His father, a native of the southern part of Germany, near the French border, was born about 1808, and acquired a fair education in French, English, Latin and German, after which he became a teacher in the German schools. While still a young man he emigrated to the United States and for three or four years was a teacher in the Buffalo (N. Y.) schools, after which he purchased one hundred and sixty acres some ten miles from Buffalo. Settling down to a farmer's life, he devoted himself to the cultivation of his place, and there he
734
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. resided until his death, in 1859. He filled the office of county commissioner and other minor offices, and was a member of the school board from the time of the erection of the schoolhouse in the district where he resided.
At the age of fifteen the subject of this sketch left home and secured employment in a sawmill, where he remained for six months and then went to Rochester, doing general work for a year. On returning home he continued there for a few months and assisted in the cultivation of the farm. At the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Sixteenth New York Infantry, Captain Werts commanding. Soon after they went to the front they were rushed through to the field of Bull Run, but being delayed near their destination, they did not arrive until the day after the battle. After two months they were ordered to Baltimore, and from there went across the country and down the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, but were soon sent back to Pennsylvania to clean out the Black Horse Regiment, then committing so many depredations. He took part in the battles of Newherne, N. C., Port Hudson Plains, the charge of Port Hudson and other minor engagements. He was wounded in the side and leg at Port Hudson and was sent to the hospital at Baton Rouge, where he hovered between life and, death for almost five months. Finally he was discharged and sent home on account of chronic disability.
After regaining his health, in the spring of 1865, Mr. Snyder came to Colorado. He spent two days in Denver and Valmont and then went to Boulder, where he worked for three months with the Boulder Canon Road Company. His next position was in a sawmill. In 1866 he bought five yoke of oxen and a wagon and commenced to haul lumber from South Boulder to Blackhawk. In November he came to Boulder and from here went into the mountains, where he chopped and hauled logs for two years. Coming back to Boulder, he worked at various occupations. In 1873 he married Miss Mary Larson and they opened a boarding house in Boulder, which they conducted for three years. On selling out he returned to the mountains, but after six months he came back to Boulder and farmed on the creek as a renter for a year. Going from hereto Left Hand Creek, he bought one hundred and sixty acres, which he farmed for thirteen years. On his return to Boulder Valley he rented for two years, after which he purchased his present place of eighty acres, his present residence. He is identified with the Grand Army of the Republic and takes an interest in everything connected with his post.
The seven children of Mr. and Mrs. Snyder are as follows: Lewis D. a farmer of Boulder Valley; Mary L., wife of Adolph Anderson, a gardener at Fort Collins; Katie (changed from Christina), wife of Grant Hall, a stonemason and bricklayer; John A., who is attending school at Morgan; Mattie M., Bessie J. and Inez L., at home.
YRON W. JONES, manager for the Holt Live Stock Company and a well-known citizen of Denver, was born in Minot, Androscoggin County, Me., and is the descendant of English ancestors who settled in Massachusetts in an early day. From that state Elijah Jones removed to Maine, where he devoted his active life to the legal profession. During the Revolution he enlisted in the colonial army and did good service in the cause of liberty. His son, Rev. Elijah Jones, was born in Hampden, Me., received his education in Bangor Theological Seminary and in early manhood entered the ministry of the Congregational Church, whose doctrines he preached in Minot for about fifty years, and until his death at seventy-nine years. He was a man of remarkably upright life, kind in heart, generous to the needy and in sympathy with the suffering and sad, striving conscientiously and with self-sacrifice to do all the good within his power to those among whom his lot was cast.
By his marriage to Bathsheba Rider, member of all old Puritan family, Rev. Elijah Jones had nine children, all of whom are living, Myron W. being the youngest of the family and the only one in Colorado. One brother, Edward E., served throughout the entire war as a member of the Third Maine Infantry and is now a merchant in New York City; another brother, Rev. W. L. Jones, is a Congregational minister in Pomona, Cal. Our subject was educated in the Minot school. He studied law in Lewiston, Me., with M. T. Ludden, and was admitted to the bar in 1873, after which he at once made preparations to remove to the west. In 1874 he came to Colo-
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 735
rado, but, instead of practicing his profession, he formed a partnership with W. T. Holt in the livestock business at Colorado Springs. The two, in 1879, organized the Holt Live Stock Company, of which Mr. Holt was president until his death, in 1894. Since the organization of the company Mr. Jones has been its manager and in 1881 removed from Colorado Springs to Denver, where he established headquarters and now has an office in the Kittredge building. The company's ranch was started at the head of Horse Creek in Elbert County, where sheep are raised; and they also have a tract on Rush Creek, where they pasture their cattle. In former years the company had a range on the Pecos River in New Mexico, where the cattle were bred and later driven to Colorado, and they still buy in large quantities in New Mexico.
While in Maine Mr. Jones married Miss Caro Farrington, who died in Denver in 1894. He was one of the charter members of the Colorado Cattle Growers' Association and is now a member of the executive committee. Politically he is a Republican and in religion is connected with the Glenarm Congregational Church. He is a member of the Odd Fellows' Lodge in Denver. While in Maine he was made a Mason, and is now identified with Denver Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M.; King Hiram Chapter, R. A. M., in Lewiston; Pike's Peak Commandery, K. T., in Colorado Springs; and El Jebel Temple, N. M. S., of Denver.
Stephen Hall, the doctor's father, was born in North Chelsea, Mass., and followed farm pursuits until the excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California in 1849, when he sailed for that country via Cape Horn. He spent three years in the far west, in mining and prospecting, after which he returned by way of Panama to his native locality. His last years were spent in Massachusetts, where he died at the age of seventy-two. He married Evelina A. Newhall, who was born in Lynnfield, Mass., a descendant of a family who settled in the Bay state in 1640. Her father, Gen. Josiah Newhall, was a soldier in the war of 1812, after which he was commissioned brigadier-general of the Massachusetts militia and in that capacity commanded the troops at the reception of General Lafayette and the dedication of Bunker Hill monument in 1823. Mrs. Hall resides at Revere (formerly North Chelsea) and all of her children except our subject also reside in Massachusetts, namely: Mrs. William B. Brooks, of Amherst; Alfred S., who occupies the old homestead; and Mrs. S. S. Harriman,
Reared in his native place, North Chelsea, the subject of this sketch gained his primary education in that town. Later he was a student in the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, from winch he graduated in 1878, with the degree of B. S. A few months later he entered the Harvard Medical School and remained there until his graduation in 1882, as an M. D. During the last year of Ins course he was appointed house physician in the Boston City Hospital, and held the position for eighteen months, resigning on his removal. In January, 1883, he came to Colorado, where he practiced at Sterling, Logan County, for nine years, meantime also serving as mayor of the city in 1888 and also as examiner for pensions. He came to Denver in 1892 and has since carried on a general practice. For some years, and until 1897, he was lecturer in the department of therapeutics in the University of Colorado, but resigned when, by the decision of the supreme court, the medical department was removed to Boulder, the seat of the main university. In 1897 he was elected professor of medicine in Gross Medical College, which position he now holds. Appointed a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners in 1889, he was president of the board in 1891 and its secretary for three years, and served until the expiration of his term of six years. While in Sterling, Colo., he was physician for the Union Pacific and the Burlington
736
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. roads. While there he married Miss Carrie G. Ayres, a native of Mississippi, and they have become the parents of two sons, Sigourney D. and Oliver W.
In national polities Dr. Hall is a silver Republican. He is a frequent contributor to medical literature, and his articles in medical journals command a wide reading. In the Woodmen of the World he is medical examiner. For a time he was vice-president of the Colorado State Medical Society, of which he is an active member, as he is also of the American Medical Association. In 1895 he was president of the Denver and Arapahoe County Medical Society, and he was also at one time vice-president of the Clinical and Pathological Society. On the organization of the Rocky Mountain Inter-State Medical Society he became a charter member. He is also identified with the Medico-Legal Society of New York City and the International Association of Railway Surgeons. In these various organizations he is well and favorably known as one of the skillful and successful physicians of the west, whose present high standing is due wholly to his energetic and untiring efforts in the past.
The Davis family is descended from English ancestry. In colonial days two brothers, one of whom was a physician, came to this country for settlement. Afterward returning to England on a visit, they were passengers on the same boat with Oliver Cromwell. Later the entire family of five brothers came to America, two of whom settled in New England, one dying there, childless, but the other leaving descendants. One brother settled in the Carolinas, but all knowledge of him was lost. The others settled in Virginia and Kentucky. Grandfather William Davis, who was born in Kentucky, removed to southern Indiana and engaged in manufacturing, merchandising and farming in Jennings County, of which he was a pioneer. He died in Decatur County at the age of eighty-four. His wife, who was a French school teacher, was a member of the La Follette family. They had a son, Phoenell La Follette Davis, who was born in Indiana, and in youth learned the trade of architect and builder. He was engaged in business at Vernon, Franklin and Martinsville. During the war he was general superintendent of construction of arsenal buildings at Indianapolis, where he later engaged in work as an architect and builder. In 1867, when he was forty-seven years of age, he was killed by a boiler explosion in the fair grounds at Indianapolis.
The marriage of P. L. Davis united him with Sarah C. Pearcy, who was born in Jennings County, Ind., the daughter of a non-commissioned officer in the war of 1812 and a farmer, who died in Jennings County at the age of seventy-three. She is now sixty-eight years of age and makes her home with her son, Dr. Davis, in Denver. Of her four sons three are living, Millard F., who was a pharmacist, having died in Indianapolis. James M. is foreman on the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf Railroad at Trinidad, Colo.; and Oscar P. is foreman in a bookbinding establishment in Denver. There is one daughter, and she resides in Indianapolis.
The oldest of the surviving sons is the subject of this sketch, who was born in Vernon, Ind., November 28, 1848. He received his primary education at Franklin and Martinsville, and in 1862 accompanied his parents to Indianapolis, where for a year he was a student in the literary department of a business college. Soon afterward he entered the Northwestern Christian University, later called Butler, and now Indianapolis University, where he was a student for two years, there beginning the study of medicine under Dr. R. T. Brown, who was one of the university professors. In 1871 he graduated from the Indiana Medical College, now the medical department of the Indianapolis University, receiving the degree of M. D. After a short period of practice in Indianapolis, he went to Bellevue Hospital Medical College, in order that the advantages offered by that famous institution might
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